


For The Right Price

by MellyHorror



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2017-12-28 16:15:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/993962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellyHorror/pseuds/MellyHorror
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rebekah needs a body guard and her father demands the best. Elena is the best but she’s keeping a secret that Rebekah is dying to find out. If she does it will change her life forever. AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

Chapter One

 

Rebekah liked to consider herself a strong and self-reliant person. She knew self defense and practiced sparing with her younger brother, Kol, often, and growing up with four brothers she knew she could hold her own. Even still, being nearly kidnapped could make a person reasonably scared and being that this was the fourth attempt in the past six months she felt justified hiding out in her bed for the past two hours trying to get her wits back.

She’d just finished packing up her car to go home for the break when, in broad daylight, a van pulled up and a man tried to pull her inside. She’d dropped her weight toward the ground and pushed her keys into his face, there had been blood dried on a few of them assuring her she’d done some damage, and once Matt was sure she was okay she’d made it home before she started truly getting scared.

Her mother and father were currently ‘discussing the situation’ in the study. She heard the study door open and close and the clicking of heels down the hallway indicated her mother was heading toward the kitchen. A few minutes later she heard a different set of footsteps coming down the second floor hall that made a grin appear on her face. She tossed aside her sheets and jumped out of the bed finally, scrambling for the door.

She found her older brother Niklaus standing outside the study, clad in a leather jacket and dark jeans, his motorcycle helmet tucked under his arm, “Nik!” her brother’s murderous gaze swung toward her and softened as she ran at him down the hallway, throwing herself against him, “you’re back from England! I didn’t know you were coming!”

“Well it was a surprise, what good would it do to tell you ahead of time?” she smiled against his shoulder, hugging him for all she was worth, “you’re not going to let me go in there, are you?” he asked.

“Nope.” She murmured against his leather jacket. He exhaled softly, shaking his head, and lifted her off the floor in a crushing hug. Satisfied she pulled away and smiled at him, “I’m so happy your home, I missed you.”

“I missed you, too, Bekah.” He gave her another half hug and kissed the side of her head before she hooked her arm around his back, forcing him down the stairs and away from the study door, “I just want to talk to him.”

“So do I, but wait for Elijah, I don’t think you two getting into a giant spat is going to help me in the least.” They stepped off the stairs into the entry way and Rebekah moved toward the living room where she sunk onto the couch. After Klaus shed his leather jacket he sunk down beside her, watching blankly as she flipped through the channels.

They didn’t have to wait long; Elijah and Kol come through the door fifteen minutes later, laughing about something as they stepped into the living room, “you know for a stuffy history professor, Elijah can be pretty amusing.” Kol laughed, dropping into an arm chair, slinging his leg over one side, he ran his hands through his already messy brown hair and glanced over at Elijah.

Their older brother was sitting perfectly relaxed in the chair while still managing to look regal, his brown hair gelled to one side his suit in perfect order, they all burst into laughter when he jokingly raised an eyebrow and looked down his nose at them, “so how was England, brother?”

“Rainy.” Klaus answered, “Has no one told you?”

“Told us?” Kol asked, tipping his head back to look at Klaus.

“Rebekah was almost kidnapped again, and once more father is doing nothing.” Klaus’s words dripped with disdain.

“Nik!” Rebekah slugged him in the arm and glared, angry that the kidnapping kept getting brought up, she’d rather just enjoy the time she had with her brothers for now and worry about the problem later.

“You told me to wait for Elijah, he’s home so I can bring it up now.” Klaus rubbed his arm and frowned.

“No you can’t we don-.”

“Dinner!” Esther yelled from the kitchen, interrupting Rebekah but effectively ending the conversation.

Smiling smugly Rebekah walked out ahead of her brothers and into the dining room, taking her seat at the table to her mother’s left in the middle. Nik sat to Rebekah’s right, between her and Esther, and Kol filled the space between Rebekah and Mikael’s chair. Elijah sat to their mother’s right, the two spaces between him and Mikael’s chair empty. One belonged to Finn, their eldest brother, and the other used to belong to Henrik, their younger brother and was now usually filled by Finn’s wife, Sage. 

“Mother can’t we start? I’m starving.” Kol complained, greedily eyeing the food set out like he hadn’t eaten in months.

“Your father is coming down.” Esther replied coolly. Frowning Kol set his hands in his lap, they’d already been seated for 5 minutes and, finally, 10 minutes later Mikael joined them at the table without a word. Once he had his food and Esther got hers everyone else filled their plates and ate in silence. Rebekah could tell it was killing Nik not to say anything, but she silently thanked him for keeping his mouth shut. Mikael hated Niklaus, for some reason, and if Nik brought it up it would turn from being about her to doing anything to spite Nik, meaning nothing would get done.

“Have you contacted someone to look into the kidnap attempts yet, Father?” Elijah asked casually toward the end of the meal, spearing a piece of broccoli with his fork, appearing uninterested in the answer.

Mikael didn’t even pause as he picked up his wine glass, “I’ve handled it.” He took a sip of the red liquid and set it back down on the table, continuing with his meal. Nik stared at Elijah, but Elijah knew better than to press the matter farther and a few minutes later Mikael spoke again, “tomorrow a specialist the Salvatore’s recommended will be here to guard Rebekah until the matter is resolved.” 

Rebekah’s eyes bugged out of her head and she had trouble not choking on her water, “you got me a body guard?” she hissed, an image of a large hulking bald guy in all black following her around campus swimming through her head, she looked down at her plate sorrowfully. She’d never show her face in public again.

“The body guard was the most qualified for this situation, Giuseppe guaranteed it. He said they’d be here in the morning.” Mikael turned to Elijah, “how has teaching been?” 

-

After dinner Rebekah cleared the table slowly and washed the dishes by hand, her thoughts wandered as she scrubbed from the mall to school to her new shoes and anywhere that wasn’t the body guard and the kidnapping. By the time she’d finished it was time for her to start getting ready for bed so she went upstairs, grabbed her toiletries and stepped into the bathroom.

She filled up the tub with warm water and some lavender scented bath oil, lit some candles and turned on a bit of relaxing music. She brushed her hair out of it’s braid and put it into a bun on the top of her head before stripping out of her old clothes. She tossed them into her hamper before she shut off the water and slipped into the large tub, sighing happily as she settled in.

Rebekah hated the idea of a body guard a little less than she hated the idea of being nearly kidnapped again, but after the nice long bath and some much needed pamper time she was coming to terms with the large man stalking her around town and campus for the foreseeable future. She crawled into bed, telling herself over and over again that a body guard wouldn’t be so bad.

When she woke up the next morning the idea was sounding even better, having had a terrible nightmare of being grabbed by a million hands and drowned in sand. She was the first up and found some poptart’s in the cupboard for breakfast. She heated them for a few seconds before popping the toaster and heading into the living room to watch the news while she ate and during the commercial breaks she checked her texts. Caroline had sent her four asking if she was okay and if she wanted Caroline to come over and Matt sent another asking if she was home safely and okay. She replied that Caroline didn’t need to come over and ignored Matt’s text completely.

Sighing and casting the small device aside she turned on some show on Animal Planet and dragged a pillow into her arms that she curled up with while she picked at the pastry. An hour later her brothers stumbled down, each five minutes after the last, and she heard her father move from the bedroom to the study while the shower started in the master bedroom. 

She went upstairs once the boys moved into the living room and fixed her hair and makeup, changed from her sleeping shirt into a pair of jean shorts and a tank top, she was just tying off her braided bangs when the door bell rang. She stood at the top of the stairs and watched her father open the door, hoping to see the body guard before he got a chance to see her, but Caroline stepped through the door instead, scowling at Mikael as her eyes scanned the house.

“Hey Care.” Rebekah smiled, skipping down the stairs quickly while her father moved past them and into the study. Caroline pulled her into a tight hug before she pulled away, “I figured we could watch some movies or something.” She told Rebekah, following her up the stairs and into the small hangout room between Rebekah and Kol’s bedrooms. Caroline flopped on the couch and put up the foot rest; Rebekah threw the remote at her and then dropped onto the other end and put up her foot rest.

They watched two movies on Netflix in silence before Rebekah finally decided to tell Caroline, “I’m getting a body guard.” Caroline’s eyebrows raised slowly, unsure how to react, “he’ll be here sometime today to follow me around until this is all over with.” 

“Is he going to be staying in our dorm room too? Are you going to be staying on campus?” Caroline asked, her voice starting to get panicky.

“I don’t know, we’ve got two months before next year starts, hopefully by then this will be all done and over with.” Rebekah sighed, Caroline nodded slowly and then they went right back to watching movies. She knew Rebekah didn’t want to talk about the kidnapping or anything related to it for any length of time, so she tried her best to not bring it up, she’d wait until later to freak out in front of Tyler.

After the third movie they went downstairs and made some lunch, Caroline cooked and Rebekah cleaned, and then they decided to layout in the back yard and soak up some sun, they went back in around 4 pm just as the door bell rang, moved up the stairs to get a look at the body guard before he came in. Rebekah’s father opened the door and said something neither could hear.

A slim tanned hand passed her father a card, but it did not take the hand her father offered for a shake. He read the card and looked toward Esther who simply looked baffled, “well come in, I suppose.” He muttered, stepping aside. Rebekah did a double take when her body guard stepped inside; she’d been expecting at the least a six foot something muscle man, but this person was anything but.

She was maybe 5’6 without her knee high booted heels; she had dark brown hair braided down her back and large brown eyes framed with dark makeup and long lashes that fluttered against her perfectly tanned cheeks when she cast her gaze through the house lazily. She had a black leather jacket on and zipped up with a pair of dark skinny jeans tucked into her boots. While she certainly looked like a tough as nails girl, Rebekah had serious doubts how the tiny girl would be able to protect her. 

“I’m Elena.” The dark haired girls eyes met Rebekah’s and she smirked.


	2. Chapter 2

“Rebekah, come down here.” Esther called in her ‘do what I’m saying or you’ll regret it’ tone, forcing a smile on her face that was far sweeter than she was while her icy blue eyes locked on Rebekah, making a chill run down the girls spine.

Rebekah exchanged a look with Caroline and the pair moved slowly down the stairs in sync, Caroline heading into the living room where Rebekah’s brothers were staring at the scene while Rebekah stopped short in front of Elena, scowling as she swept her eyes up and down the girl before turning to her father, “This is a joke, right? I’ve nearly been kidnapped four times, and this is what you hire to keep me safe?”

“Now Rebekah-.” Mikael started, not used to his daughter ever questioning or talking back to him.

“No!” Rebekah interrupted, her face turning red with anger, “men grabbed me and tried to take me, and you hire this to protect me? What is she going to do if men grab at me again? She’ll just end up getting taken; this is a joke.” She seethed.

Elena cleared her throat, Rebekah’s angry blue eyes swung to her, “Seeing as they were incompetent enough to have not successfully taken you I doubt they’ll even try if there is a second person around.”

“There’s no guaranteeing that.” Rebekah hissed, turning back to her father, “next time you hire someone to save me don’t call my ex!” Rebekah yelled, her father’s face turned red as Rebekah stormed into the living room.

“What is it about me that has you in such a snit?” Elena asked, spinning slowly so her eyes followed Rebekah’s path.

“If I get nearly kidnapped again it’d be more useful to have Kol following me around all the time.” She gestured toward her brother who was sprawled out in the arm chair in a pair of grey sweat pants and wrinkled t-shirt, his hair sticking up in random directions while his brown eyes stared lifelessly at the TV screen.

“Please, I could kick his ass. He’d be useless in protecting you.” Elena declared, “he’d overreact. And I doubt he could take on a full grown man in a fight. Kidnapping is not like boxing.”

Kol’s attention was drawn to Elena when she mentioned boxing, “Do you honestly think you could take me?” 

“I wouldn’t even break a sweat.” Elena laughed at a joke nobody else in the room seemed to understand while Kol’s chest puffed up and his cheeks turned red from a mix of anger and embarrassment, Elena arched an eyebrow in challenge.

“I wouldn’t want to hurt you.” Kol huffed, turning away, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You couldn’t even come close.” Elena replied easily her eyes moving back toward Rebekah’s father, “Anyways, I’ve already gone by the campus and done my research there, and the house is pretty safe, so I’d like a list of the other places she was almost kidnapped so I can look at them and figure out what their minimal thought process was in trying to nab her there.” 

“Of course, Rebekah can you write that list up?” Mikael asked his face no longer red., Rebekah nodded mutely while anger burned in Nik’s eyes, Elena noticed this and eyed him curiously, noting that he was very protective of his sister.

“She was attacked twice outside the school, once outside the Grill, and another time outside of a club a town over called Tempest.” Niklaus told Elena, his angry stare locked on his father. Elena typed this into her phone and nodded her head slowly.

“Thanks, do you go by Nik or Klaus?” she asked, without looking up.

“Klaus.” He muttered. 

Elena nodded and glanced toward Elijah, “Full name or a nickname?” she asked.

“Why do you want to know?” Kol asked.

“Because if I’m posing as a friend it would be strange for me to be calling you by your full names if you go by something else, wouldn’t it?” Elena’s tone made Elijah crack a smile; she talked to Kol in the way someone would talk to a child.

“I go by Elijah; it’s a pleasure to meet you, Elena.” 

Elena smiled briefly, it wasn’t forced, but Rebekah noted that it also wasn’t a true smile, “likewise.” 

Esther clapped her hands together and her forced smile amped up to full wattage as she directed Elena through the house to her room, directly across the hall from Rebekah’s, and then announced she was heading to work. Mikael moved into his study without another word.

Without a word to her brothers she grabbed Caroline’s wrist and dragged her upstairs, sending a glare toward the closed door of the guest room before she stepped into her room and shut the door behind her. 

“Seriously he hired a girl to protect me. He couldn’t even get someone with some muscle or something? No he gets a tiny girl what’s she going to do? Scare him off with her bad attitude?” 

Caroline laughed, “She’s such a total biker chick,” Caroline gasped, “I bet she has a tramp stamp!” the pair exchanged a mock-horrified look and briefly dissolved into a fit of giggles, giving Rebekah a nice reprieve from the sense of doom bubbling in her stomach.

“I mean seriously Beks, she’s got a point, at least she’s better than nothing. It’s the Salvatore’s fault they sent a chick, not hers.” Caroline reasoned, “cut her some slack maybe she’ll be I don’t know…better?”

“He should know better than to call and ask my ex to help protect me.” Rebekah muttered digging around in her closet while Caroline changed from the bathing suit back into her shorts and tank top, slipping on her ankle boots before pulling out her phone. Rebekah pulled out a pair of blue jean shorts and a double layered tank top; she put them on and then pulled on a pair of tan heels, her eyes straying toward her bed. Part of her just wanted to crawl right back under those sheets and never come out.

Caroline saw her longing gaze and frowned, “Well forget about that. We’re going to the Grill to have a fun time!” Caroline grinned, touching up her makeup. Rebekah plastered a smile on her face, pulling open her door, “go ask her to at least change.”

“I will.” Rebekah crossed the hall and poised to knock on the door just as it opened, Rebekah’s heart jumped into her throat and Elena smirked. Rebekah put her hand on her chest and took a few steps back. “We’re going to the Grill with Klaus and Kol.”

“Okay.” Elena turned around and walked back to her bed, Rebekah noticed that she’d changed into a pair of light blue jean shorts and a lavender tank top, she’d even pulled her hair down so it fell in waves down her back. She also noted that Elena did not, in fact, have a tramp stamp when the girl bent over to get something from her bag on the floor and the purple tank top rode up to reveal creamy unmarked tanned skin.

Once Elena was ready the girls headed down the stairs where they joined Klaus and Kol and went out to Klaus’s SUV. Caroline, Rebekah and Kol sat in the back while Elena sat up front and they told her various things about each place, people and friends the recognized and places Rebekah had felt creeped out in the past two months, upon Elena’s request.

When they got to the Grill Rebekah and Caroline went straight for a table where a bunch of guys were playing pool while Elena lingered by Klaus, sitting down with him and Kol across the bar, “she’s helpful.” Rebekah muttered, Caroline followed her glare across the Grill to the table Elena, Kol and Klaus were sitting and just shook her head.

“Rebekah, hey how are you feeling?” Matt called when the blondes joined the group at the pool table; he gave her a half hug and smiled down at her. 

Rebekah smiled meekly up at him, “I’m better now. Thanks for the help the other day.” Matt smiled down at her, gave her a quick half hug and then moved away to take his turn at the table. Rebekah sighed and joined Caroline and some old friends from school sitting at a nearby table, she tried to listen to the gossip and participate but she was too busy watching every door and window and glaring at her useless body guard to be much help. The tanned girl was in some deep conversation with Klaus and hardly even looking anywhere but at her brother.

“Earth to Beks.” Caroline snapped her fingers in Rebekah’s face, “we’re going to a club tonight with the guys, you wanna come?”

“Uh…sure.” Rebekah mumbled. Part of her really wanted to say no but the other part of her desired not having to hide in fear of something that might happen. Elena had a point earlier when she said she might not be attacked if she wasn’t alone, Rebekah had never been attacked when her friends were around so going to the club should be fine. 

When they got back home to get ready Rebekah went straight for the bathroom. She turned on the radio, turning it up as loud as she could, and started running the water in her tub while she grabbed shaving cream and a razor. After soaking her legs in the warm water she spread the shaving cream over her legs and slowly shaved her legs, trying to figure out what she wanted to wear. 

By the time she was done shaving she had her entire outfit planned, now excited to go out she stepped out of the bathroom and went to knock on Elena’s door to let her know, when she knocked the door swung open and she watched the dark haired girl hastily close the lid of her suitcase, “we’re going over to Tempest tonight.” Rebekah told her, eyeing the bag suspiciously.

“Okay. I guess I should shower and change then.” Elena replied, turning away from the bag to grab a towel from the night stand along with a hair brush and a bag of what Rebekah assumed to be makeup wipes. She shrugged and backed away from Elena’s room, going into her own. 

After turning on her bedroom radio she sat down at her vanity to start fixing her hair separating it into layers to begin the lengthy process of straightening her blond locks. Elena was out of the shower and back in her room blow drying her hair before Rebekah was finished with her third of four layers, and by the time she was done with her hair she heard Elena step out of her room and move down the stairs just before the door bell rang.

Rebekah tiptoed out of her room, hearing Elena’s voice and peered down the stairs. She was talking to Damon, holding a brown paper bag in her hand, and she looked like she’d rather be talking to anyone else, but Rebekah couldn’t make out the words she was saying. She tiptoed back into her room before she could be caught snooping and shut the door almost all the way again so Elena wouldn’t know she came out.

Elena passed the room almost silently, shutting her bedroom door behind her. Rebekah heard the paper bag rustle, then silence, and then the sound of someone crumpling it up. She wasn’t too sure what Damon would be bringing the girl but she didn’t really care anyways, she finished up her hair put on some face powder, eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss before changing into a dress that had a pink flowing skirt that stopped above her knee and a halter style top that was cut out like a bra with a bow design on it and thick straps.

She dug around in her closet to find the box with her favorite black pumps inside and tossed them onto her bed while she searched through her jewelry for a necklace to wear, she clipped her favorite silver chain with a small arrow pendant on the end around her neck before she put on her heels and stepped into the hall.

“Elena, are you ready?” 

“Yeah.” Elena replied, stepping out of the room and pulling the door shut behind her. Rebekah’s eyes scanned over the girls outfit, a blue dress with a low cut square neckline that was belted at the waist with a cropped black jacket and a pair of black heels to match. She paused at the door to take a ring off of her finger and tucked it into the zipper pocket of her jacket before she started down the stairs ahead of Rebekah.

“You have pink high lights in your hair.” Rebekah commented when they were outside waiting for Caroline on the porch, “Were those there earlier?”

“Yes.” Elena replied, leaning on the porch railing, “they’re underneath so you can’t see them if my hair isn’t curled.” 

“They make you look less intimidating.”

“That’s why I hide them when I want to look intimidating and have them out when I don’t.” she sighed, her eyes scanning the dark sky for the moon which was hidden behind a number of clouds but was still shinning brightly, “Full moon tonight.” She murmured.

“Yeah. All the werewolves must be out.” Rebekah laughed, sitting down on the porch swing and pulling out her phone. Elena snorted in response, “Caroline said she’ll be here soon, she had to drop her boyfriend off somewhere.”

“Okay.” Mumbled, pulling out her phone. Rebekah’s eyes scanned through the dark, nerves bubbling up in her stomach almost out of nowhere; maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. Caroline showed up before she could change her mind and run back into the house, and talked a mile a minute the entire way their. Unlike at the Grill, Elena stuck beside the pair most of the night, as if they’d been friends for years, laughing, drinking and dancing with them like she’d always been there.

Rebekah couldn’t help but marvel at how quickly Elena could go from being this strange, cold, cut off person to a college party girl in such a short amount of time, this girl who was about as drunk as she was, was supposed to be protecting her, instead she was doing shots at the bar with Caroline. 

Scowling at the pair Rebekah pushed through the crowd, stumbling slightly, and into the rather dirty ladies room to touch up her makeup, wondering if they would even notice that she’d gone. About five minutes later neither had called to check on her whereabouts, “that’s it, I’ve nearly been kidnapped but shots are more important than me.” she grumbled, storming out of the bathroom ready to go give them a piece of her mind when a hand clamped over her mouth and another wrapped around her body.

This person was stronger than the others, she felt like he could break her body without much effort and all of her screaming and kicking did no good as she was carried out the door and into the back alley where he threw her on the ground, another man was waiting outside and he grinned when he saw her, “so this is what he’s after, she’s nothing special.” He mused, “certainly not one of the five, so why?”

“Who cares, lets just kill her.” Rebekah’s hands started to tremble, kill? They’d only wanted to take her before now they were going to kill her?

Tears sprung to her eyes, “please, don’t kill me, I’ll do whatever you want please don’t kill-.” 

The man glared at her, “shut up.” Like magic Rebekah’s words died in her throat. The second man laughed while the other crouched in front of her with malice shining in his dark eyes, “there is only two things you are good for. Dying or-.” He didn’t get to finish, almost like she appeared out of nowhere Elena was their, grabbing the back of the man’s shirt and tossing him like a rag doll across the alley way. 

She grabbed the second man and threw him aside as well before looking down at Rebekah and locking eyes with her, “run.” 

Without much control over her body Rebekah was on her feet and running, she wasn’t sure where she was going but she wasn’t going to stop. She heard a lot of fighting behind her and feared the worst for Elena, but she couldn’t stop running, not even to pick up her shoes when they fell off.

She only stopped when she ran straight into another body, hitting the ground hard. When she looked up she found Bonnie Bennett sitting across from her, “watch where you’re going next time.” 

“I’m sorry.” Rebekah whispered, “these men grabbed me and Elena-oh my god Elena.” Rebekah turned, ready to run back and check on the girl when she rounded the corner, jogging slowly, with Rebekah’s shoes in one hand.

“Do you know her?” Bonnie asked.

“Yeah, she’s Elena.” Rebekah replied, “My uh friend, visiting from out of town.” 

“Hey, are you okay?” Elena asked once she reached them, handing Rebekah back her shoes, eyes scanning over the girl, “they didn’t do anything to you, did they?”

“They threatened to kill me.” Rebekah replied, shuddering, “but no they didn’t hurt me.” 

“Good, Caroline is over there, go home, stay in your room, do not invite anyone inside, okay?” Rebekah nodded, her head swimming with confusion as she walked away, watching Bonnie and Elena talk before the pair started back toward the alley. But she followed Elena’s instructions and got into the car with Caroline.

“Take me home.” She whispered.

“Where’s Elena?”

“Dropped her phone somewhere.” Rebekah lied, Caroline glanced back at the pair turning into the alley before she started her car and headed back toward Rebekah’s house. When she got inside she turned to watch Caroline leave before she locked the front door, and checked the other locks, and went into the kitchen. 

Lying on the counter was a note from her parents, they’d been called away on emergencies and her brothers were all in the next down over for Kol’s boxing match. She crumpled the paper up and threw it away as she walked to the cabinet, grabbing herself a glass of water and a pack of poptarts before she went up to her room where she dragged her curtains closed and changed out of her dress into a large tshirt and some sleep pants, wiped her makeup off and sat down to watch a movie on Netflix to numb her mind. 

Her hand went to reach for her necklace to rub the charm between her fingers when she noticed it was missing. she pulled her knees up to her chest and stared blankly at the TV for the next hour, until she heard someone jiggling the door handle trying to get in. Grabbing her softball bat from her closet before she left her room, Rebekah slowly moved down the stairs, reached for the lock, readied her bat and opened the door, “Elena.” She sighed in relief. 

“Just me.” Elena confirmed, stepping inside, shutting the door behind her, “you make it home okay?”

“Yeah, Caroline’s a speedy driver.” Rebekah mumbled, “What happened to those guys? Why did you go back into the alley?”

“I dropped my phone.” Elena replied, “those guys are probably taking themselves to a hospital right now.”

“How do you know Bonnie?”

“I know her family.” 

“Pretty convenient for her to just show up like that and go into the alley with you, and for you to show up right before they were about to kill me.” Rebekah snapped, “you had time to grab my shoes but not your phone?”

“I didn’t know I lost my phone.” Elena growled, “and Tempest is the only club in the area it is not that suspicious that a college girl showed up at the only one around.”

“I don’t know why we should trust you, we don’t even know your last name.” Rebekah hissed.

“Gilbert.” Elena snapped.

Rebekah paused, her eyebrows knitting together, “like the Gilbert founding family?”

“Yes.” Elena’s eyes took on a hard edge, “now is there anything else you would like to know?”

“How the hell are you alive? They all died in the 1800’s.” Rebekah crossed her arms over her chest, she hated being lied too.

“My parents moved out of Mystic Falls before they family died, that’s how I’m still alive. Jonathan Gilbert and his family died, but not his sister’s family, they were living over in New York.” Elena replied, “If you checked your town’s history you’d know that his sister Isobel moved away when she married a traveler.” 

Rebekah narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Elena before she spun and went into her room, shutting the door roughing. She heard Elena go into her room, the door shut almost silently. Rebekah dropped roughly into her bed, grabbing a pillow and holding it against her chest, her face buried in the soft fabric, turning on her TV to drown out the silence.

The Buffy theme song startled her out of her motionless stupor sometime later, scaring her half to death, but fully pulling her attention to the screen instead of wallowing on the almost kidnapping almost murder, instead she found herself getting lost in the world of vampires and demons without much complaint. Although the creepy demon on the screen was giving her the heebie-jeebies, she still let herself get sucked into the show anyways.

The next episode was starting when Elena knocked on the door, “are you feeling okay?” she asked, sticking her head inside, “are you watching Buffy?” she

“Yeah.” Rebekah mumbled, moving over on the bed silently. Elena stepped into the room and sat down on the bed beside her, crossing her legs and leaning her elbows on her knees to watch the episode, the pair eventually moving downstairs to get popcorn and cookies, sitting down on the couch to watch a marathon of the show on Netflix. 

“So vampires, that’s your kinda thing?” Elena asks around 3 am, the pair had been camped out on the couch talking for nearly two hours now, Rebekah babbling on and on about writing, and fiction and things that help her escape.

“I mean I think it’s cool, from afar, but a creature that will live forever and could kill you without much effort? That’d be terrifying if they were real.” Rebekah shuddered, “but I imagine, if they were, they’d be pretty damn lonely, living forever, watching their loved ones die.”

“So you wouldn’t want to live forever?”

“No.” Rebekah didn’t even stop to ponder the question, “I don’t want to watch my children die. I want to grow old with the one I love, have babies and watch them have babies and die before they do, nobody should have to see their children die. I mean imagine watching your child grow old and die without being able to see them? To say goodbye? That would be the worst.”

“It would be.” Elena’s voice sounded hallow and lifeless, it made Rebekah’s heart twist, but she didn’t know why, “but I think the worst part would be having to remember them, all about them, night after night, having to remember that those people existed and now they don’t, and you’re all alone.” Rebekah stared at Elena silently, watching the way her dark brown eyes seemed so much older than an 18 year olds eyes, haunted and terrified, and very, very lonely. But Elena quickly turned a smile onto her face and the look disappeared, “anyways, I think we should head up to bed. Getting kinda tired.”

“Okay.” Rebekah whispered, following Elena’s quick path up the stairs, stopping to watch the girl slip into the guest room silently, shutting the door with a click. Sighing softly she walked into her own bedroom, collapsing against the bed, her arms wrapping around her pillow. She hadn’t realized just how tired she felt until her eyes drooped closed and everything seemed slow until she was fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I spent November procrastinating doing NaNoWriMo, but finally here's a new chapter and hopefully the updates will be quicker to come out!


	3. Chapter 3

“There it is.” Rebekah announced, blue eyes skimming across the old dusty page slowly a grin forming on her glossy lips, “Isobel Gilbert’s marriage to Markus Flemming, and the house becoming her nephews, she sold it two weeks before the Gilbert’s massacre.” 

Caroline looked up from her phone, her blue eyes clouding with tears that she hurriedly blinked away, “Good. Now that that’s settled can we leave? I’m on break from college so I don’t have to be in some stuffy room surrounded by books.” Caroline scowled; she could care less if Elena had been telling the truth about her heritage. She was doing her job, so what did it matter?

“Don’t be so whiny.” Rebekah muttered, closing the book and sliding it back on the shelf. The pair had managed to slip Elena that morning, though they both knew it wouldn’t be for long. Caroline nodded and stood up eagerly; sliding her phone into her back pocket and following Rebekah out of Town Hall, “tell Tyler I said thanks, by the way.” 

Caroline nodded her head, locking the door with the key Tyler had given her, sliding it into her pocket before skipping down the stairs with Rebekah, stopping short when she spotted Elena standing at the curb beside a motorcycle. 

She looked angry, her brown eyes narrowed and her lips in a thin line as she glared up at Damon with her arms crossed tightly against her chest, the wind blowing her red and white patterned dress around her knees failed to make her look less terrifying, if anything it made her more terrifying.

Damon was mocking her stance, looking down at her like she was a petulant child but he was slightly nervous and kept a space between them while his blue eyes narrowed down at her as they argued in hushed tones, she watched his jaw tick in anger while Elena’s nostrils flared. They looked like they could kill each other at any second.

Caroline grabbed her arm and tugged her silently away from the scene and over to her car, sliding into the driver’s seat and pulling slowly away from the curb, they both caught a glimpse of Elena suddenly punching Damon hard across the face, knocking him down before she turned, got on the motorcycle and sped off in the other direction, nearly running over Damon in the process.

He caught up with the blondes at the mall, following them leisurely from shop to shop, and standing outside stores watching them buy and browse. Rebekah found it more annoying to have Damon around than she did Elena, at least the girl blended in, but Damon drew attention everywhere he went, and Rebekah noticed everyone noticing him.

After paying for her latest purchase she stormed out of Forever 21 and stopped in front of him, waiting for Caroline to finish before going to Victoria Secret, “why are you following us? Where’s Elena?” she hissed.

“I don’t know. I’m certainly not her keeper.” Damon replied with a sarcastic bite to his voice, “She asked me to watch you two, so here I am.” He forced a smile on his face that was as sarcastic as his words.

Rebekah had never liked Damon, he was too dry and sarcastic, and down right rude most of the time, talking to her like she was a piece of meat instead of a person, “I’d rather Stefan be watching me.”

“You and me both.” Damon jeered the smile fall off his face, “Blondie lets go.” He called over Rebekah’s head. Caroline pointedly ignored him and continued to chat with the cashier for another five minutes before sauntering out of the store with her bags.

“You look too serious. Hold this, you’ll look more like a reluctant boyfriend than some creepy attractive stalker.” She shoved her bags into his chest, which he took with a silent glare, and dragged Rebekah behind her off to Victoria Secret. Rebekah browsed through things, her eyes constantly flickering to Damon who was standing outside, leaning against a pillar with their bags, one foot on the pillar while his eyes focused on his phone.

“He’s about as useful as Elena is.” Rebekah muttered, Caroline glanced up at him and then at Rebekah, sighing.

“He’s doing the best, Beks, cut him some slack. He’s not so bad.” Caroline assured her, “It’s not like this is even his job.”

“Since when are you team Damon?” Rebekah asked, spinning around to follow Caroline’s path across the store.

“I’m not team anyone; I’m just saying he’s not that bad.” Caroline replied, “I’ve got everything I want. I need to get you home so I can go pick up Tyler.” So they finished their quick browsing, checked out and walked with Damon out to Caroline’s car.

“I can drive her home, Blondie.” Damon offered, “It’s a long way up to Tyler’s.” 

Caroline glanced at Rebekah hopefully, biting her lip, “That’s fine. I know you need to go pick him up.” Rebekah grabbed her bags from the trunk, gave Caroline a quick hug and followed Damon over to his car slowly, tossing her bags into the backseat of his SUV before pulling herself into the passenger seat.

After five minutes of silence Rebekah couldn’t take it anymore, “What were you two fighting about this morning?” Rebekah asked, staring at the cars in front of them.

“Old history stuff.” Damon replied, resting his arm on the door and his head on his hand, glaring at the car in front of him.

“You fuck her and dump her too?”

“You knew I wasn’t looking for a relationship, Barbie,” Damon pointed out, using the nickname he knew she hated, “and don’t pretend you weren’t using me just to get back at Stefan. The relationship between Elena and me is a lot more complicated than that, and it’s been around a lot longer than you.”

“You guys aren’t that old.” Rebekah countered, “I’ve known you for four years, what kind of serious relationship can a fifteen year old have?”

“I’m not explaining it to you. But we’ve all been friends,” the way he said it made it seem like he wasn’t so sure that was the right way to word it, “for years, longer than we’ve known you, and she’s a very complicated and terrifying person.”

“How complicated can it be?” Rebekah scowled. She was feeling left out, with Caroline and Damon on good terms-which they hadn’t been since the pair split four years ago- Elena and the Salvatore brothers having some huge secret, Elena slipping off when she felt like it and dumping her with Damon, of all people, and even down to Elena knowing Bonnie it was just aggravating. 

She felt like everyone was in on something she wasn’t apart of.

“Maybe you can get it out of her tightly sealed lips, but it’s not my story to tell.” Damon replied, “It’d make a good one for one of your novels, though.” 

A few minutes later when she didn’t speak Damon nudged her shoulder playfully, “Everything is going to be okay again, this will all go away soon.”

“Did she tell you about the guys in the alley?” Rebekah asked she wasn’t sure why she wanted to or what made her spit the words out but they filled the car before she could stop them.

“Yeah, she did. I’m trying to look into it.” Damon answered, “Do you remember what they said? Anything weird that didn’t make any sense to you?”

“They just said they didn’t know why he was after me, whoever that would be, because I’m nothing special and then they said they didn’t care and they’d just kill me and they made me shut up, but then Elena showed up and I can only vaguely remember anything after that until I ran into Bonnie.”

Damon’s eyes lingered on her neck for a moment, a frown on his lips, “where’s your necklace?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t notice it was gone until I got home.” Rebekah replied, sinking against the back of the seat, reaching for her necklace even though she knew it wasn’t there. 

“We’ll get this sorted out, Barbie, don’t worry.” He smiled at her, reaching over and giving her hand a squeeze before pulling away again. His eyes focused on the road. They were silent until they got to the house; Damon carried her bags up with her and made sure she was safely locked inside before he left.

“Anyone here?” she called, glancing through the living room and kitchen, but she was alone, not even Elena was around. Sighing she set her bags in her room, changed into a pair of shorts and curled up on her bed with her notebook, scribbling away until her random stream of words morphed into a story. 

She was so lost in what she was doing that she nearly screamed when Elena sat down on the foot of her bed, “Damon and I went back to the alley, he found this. Said it was important to you.” She dropped the necklace down on the book. 

“Yeah.” Rebekah murmured, quickly putting it on, “It was a gift from my mother.” 

“It’s very pretty.” Elena murmured, standing up, “Your brothers should be home soon.” With that she slipped into her room and closed the door. Rebekah could hear the sound of another brown paper bag opening, and a few moments later, it was crumpled up. Elena stayed in her room the rest of the night, and like she guessed, Klaus, Kol and Elijah showed up twenty minutes later. Rebekah went downstairs, happy to spend time watching mindless TV sandwiched between Klaus and Kol while Elijah sat regally in the recliner beside them.

 

Rebekah was nervous; no scratch that, terrified, as she pulled up in the dorm parking space assigned to her with Elena occupying the seat beside her calm as a clam. She wasn’t sure what she was nervous about, aside from the obvious, and with Elena around she hadn’t been attacked since the night at the club, but staring up at the building, being able to see the curb where she’d been attacked just a few weeks ago, her stomach twisted into a web of tight knots.

“You’ll be fine Rebekah, I swear.” Elena told her, resting her hand awkwardly on Rebekah’s shoulder, trying to calm her nerves, “all we’re doing today is taking this stuff upstairs, and with two of us it’ll be one trip and I’ll be with you the entire way.”

Rebekah nodded her head, cheeks flushing in embarrassment, and pushed out of the car. Elena followed her, her heels clicking on the ground as she rounded by the trunk and grabbed her two bags, slinging them across her body so they sat against her back, and one of Rebekah’s following the girl while her eyes scanned the crowds behind dark sunglasses.

Once they were safely inside the dorm they’d be sharing with Caroline Rebekah visibly relaxed, dropping her bags at the foot of her bed. Elena had no trouble figuring out which bed was hers, seeing that the one at the farthest end of the room was void of sheets and pillows. A neat little zippered back with sheets and two pillows sat on them. Rebekah glanced at a note taped on them, but only caught the swirling handwriting she knew belonged to one of the Salvatore brothers. 

“How long have you known the Salvatore brothers?” Rebekah asked casually, pulling her clothes out of her suitcase and tucking them into her dresser while Elena tossed the orange and white sheets across the bed, scowling the entire time.

“For a long time.” Elena replied vaguely, “I hate them, but I needed the cash and this is possibly the easiest thing I’ve had to do to get it.” 

Rebekah frowned; sure she knew Elena was being paid but to have it thrown in her face was kind of painful, “so if someone had paid you to kidnap me?”

“You’d be tied up lying at their feet while I walked with my money.” Elena replied, her harsh brown eyes meeting Rebekah’s blue ones firmly, “I’m not here to be your new girl pal, which I’m sure you’re aware of, so quit looking at me like I kicked your puppy.”

“I’m not comfortable knowing that if someone pays you higher I could be on my way to whoever’s feet in seconds.” Rebekah hissed.

“I’m being paid to protect you, and I don’t care if someone offered me more money to take you to them-I’m already on this job and I’m a girl of my word, so I will not be harming a hair on your blonde little head or handing you over to anyone.” Elena snapped, tossing the comforter with a snap of her wrist stiffly across the bed, it laid down perfectly and angered Rebekah as the girl dragged the pillow cases onto the pillows and tossed them near the headboard.

“Knock, knock.” Elena’s back visibly stiffed as her nostrils flared and she tucked her hand behind her back, a confused but innocent look quickly adorning her face in seconds. Rebekah was stunned by how fast the girl reacted, she’d barely had time to look at the door before Elena was changed from rude body guard to college girl, “may I come in?” 

“I’m not in the mood, Alexander.” Rebekah sighed, running her hand across her bed to straighten out her sheets, “I’ve had a rough few weeks.”

“My apologies, I’ll come back later.” She didn’t miss the way his brown eyes hardened seeing Elena who was standing there, looking like a lost little freshman, before he turned and stormed away.

“Whose he?” she asked when he was gone, returning to unpacking.

“Alexander, a son of an ex partner of my dads.” Rebekah replied with a shrug of her shoulder, putting her last shirt into her dresser, “wont leave me alone.”

“How annoying.” Elena muttered. 

“Good afternoon ladies.” Caroline beamed stepping into the room, Tyler at her heels.

“Hey Care, hey Tyler.” Rebekah greeted with a polite smile in his direction. He gave her a charming half smile and turned his eyes to Elena, and Rebekah noted his eyes also turned into a cold hard stare when they landed on her. Elena smiled at him, taking a few slow steps and extending her hand.

“Hi, I’m Elena, its nice to meet you.” Tyler looked at Caroline who narrowed her eyes in silent threat and he took Elena’s hand and shook it. Rebekah shook her head, completely baffled by his attitude.

“I’m Tyler, Caroline’s boyfriend, nice to meet you too.” He glanced at Rebekah and then back at Elena, “So you’re the body guard?”

“That’s what the pay check says.” Elena replied, turning back to her normal self now that she knew Tyler was in on everything. He whispered something that made Caroline smack his chest and Elena growl, but Rebekah missed seeing the exchange as she tucked her notebooks into the cubby in her night stand.

“So we were going to do a movie night over at their place.” Caroline ventured, “just us and the guys.” She looked over at Rebekah who looked like she’d rather not.

“Stefan one of them?”

“He’s their roommate, Beks, you gotta get over that.” Caroline replied, “Besides, Matt will be there to keep your mind off Stefan.” Rebekah rolled her eyes and Caroline turned to Elena who shrugged one shoulder and tossed her bag underneath her bed. An hour later the trio was heading across the campus to the boys dorm room for the movie marathon, Rebekah and Caroline walking at a brisk pace, arms linked chatting a mile a minute while Elena trailed behind them, texting on her phone. 

Rebekah tried to ignore how completely careless that seemed and wondered how much this paycheck really meant to Elena, she kept glancing back but the brunette never so much as glanced up, until they reached the boys room and the door swung open. Rebekah settled on the floor by Matt while Caroline crawled into Tyler’s lap. Elena perched on a chair near the door angled at the TV, phone now gone.

So she can pay attention to the movie but not me, Rebekah thought angrily. Dragging her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on top of them, staring at the movie with a serious lack of interest. When it was over she followed Matt and Stefan out, avoiding tripping over Caroline and Tyler who were locked at the lips, she hardly looked back to see if Elena was following but soon spotted her out of the corner of her eye walking parallel to them eyes scanning across the grounds twice before she tucked her hands in her jacket pocket and slowly fell in behind them.

Once the girls were in their dorm the boys walked back across campus, likely to go sit in the hallway and wait for Caroline and Tyler to finish what they were doing. Rebekah wasted no time stepping behind the changed screen and pulling on her pajamas and when she came out Elena had disappeared. 

Frowning she walked to the door, about to open it when she heard whispering. She pressed her ear against the door, hoping the pair were in too deep of a fight to hear her. 

“If you didn’t trust me you shouldn’t have called me, Stefan.” Elena hissed, “I know what I’m talking about and something just doesn’t sit right with that.”

“I’ve known him for years, he’s not that stupid.”

“Yes he is. He thinks your uncle is your father, he is that stupid.” Elena hissed again.

Rebekah’s brows knitted together. Though she’d been in a relationship with Stefan for nearly two years she’d never met his father. She just assumed that, like her father, he was just always working and never present for anything family related-though her father usually sat down to dinner with them every night he was home. But now she’s saying he’s not real?

“Please, Elena, you thought-.” 

Elena laughed harshly, cutting off his words, “I thought nothing. I knew Giuseppe Salvatore. Before Katherine showed up. I am not, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, dumb. I’ve been around a lot longer than you, and you need to stop forgetting that.” Rebekah was no very confused, who the hell was Katherine? And how had she been around a lot longer than Stefan? There was no way Elena was a year older than he was, let alone ‘a lot’.

Silently she backed away from the door, having heard enough to confuse her to no end for now, and crawled into her bed, burying her face in the sheets. Ten minutes later the door opened, “Good bye Stefan.” Caroline’s voice rang out, and peeking out from under her covers she could see the blonde pushing Elena into the room. The brunette shook her head at Caroline and inclined her head toward Rebekah who hastily shut her eyes, listening to the other girls crawl into their beds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so short and took so long. I’m just trying to make this flow correctly and come out the way I want it. Thanks for reading, hope you like it!


	4. Chapter 4

Rebekah got lost a lot. Not physically, but mentally. Her mind would just get sucked up and wrapped into a story or a thought so tight the rest of the world was gone, body functions were ignored, and hunger was pushed out of her mind. She was in one of those places now, furiously scribbling in her story journal. So when Elena slammed the door closed extremely hard, shaking a few of the pictures on the wall, she about jumped out of her skin, dropping her notebook and the tucked in pages onto the floor.

She pressed her hand against her heart while Elena crouched between their beds to pick up the notebook and papers, twisting and setting them on the foot of Rebekah’s bed without even a glance at them before lifting one foot and removing her shoe and then lifting the other and removing that shoe, setting them beside the night stand between their bed and peeling off her jacket before she sat down on her bed.

“Where have you been?” Rebekah growled angrily, snatching her journal off the end of her bed. 

“Investigating. I figured you wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon, the way you were wrapped up in your diary.” Elena shrugged, kicking her legs up onto the bed and stretching out, pulling her phone out of her pocket and staring at it intently.

“It’s not a diary.” Rebekah defended.

“Okay.” Elena replied, glancing over at her briefly, “your journal then. It makes no difference you were distracted, anyways, Caroline is coming up with a compelling story to get us to go with her to that stupid Cupid frat party, it’s not even February, whats the point of a Cupid party in August?” 

“I hate those parties.” Rebekah groaned, “Stefan broke up with me at one.” She bit her lip after realizing what she said and glanced at Elena.

“He’s always had a knack for ending things at just the wrong time.” Elena observed, not taking her eyes off of her phone, “whether we go or not is up to you. I personally don’t care for parties.” 

“Do you care for anything?” Rebekah replied.

Elena rolled her head to the side casually with a sarcastic smirk, “my face between girls' thighs.” Rebekah’s cheeks burned as she tried to refrain from gaping at the girl across from her who burst into a fit of laughter at the sight of the blondes face, the most carefree she'd been in private since they met, Rebekah was shocked at both the statement and how much emotion the usually stoic girl was showing

The pair was so involved in their little banter that they missed the door opening. “What’s going on in here?” Caroline asked, hovering by the door with Tyler. Elena's laughter was gone and the stony look was back as she focused on her phone.

“N-Nothing.” Rebekah hissed ducking her head to hide her burning cheeks clearing her throat before glancing up at Caroline, “I heard there’s a party Friday.” she quickly diverted the subject.

“Yeah, I know you don’t like parties…” Caroline started, her voice edging on whining.

“No, it sounds like fun.” Rebekah replied enthusiastically, “I’m sure Elena loves college parties.” Elena rolled her eyes, crossing her legs at the ankles, but still stayed focused on her phone. 

“Well we can discuss the party later, you’re about to be late for psych.” Eyes widening to saucers Rebekah shot out of bed, scrambling to grab all of her books and running out of the room, Elena following her at a casual pace, eyes glued to her phone, but she still managed to keep up with Rebekah and not run into anybody. They made it to class just in time, Elena settling into a seat next to Rebekah, taking out a pen and notebook.

Rebekah couldn’t remember much of that psych lesson, something about a prison experiment. Instead she could remember the intense focus Elena had on her notebook and the ease at which she snapped her attention back to the lesson and answered a question without hesitation, “power corrupts. The feeling of control over someone’s life is sometimes euphoric. God like.” 

“Very good, Miss Gilbert.” Elena’s lips twitched into a faint smile and her eyes went back down to her notebook. Rebekah couldn’t stop watching her, the way her eyes never drifted from the page, the way she twisted her hair unconsciously around her finger, how her foot tapped in the air. Elena was writing in another language so Rebekah had no clue what she was so focused on.

It was strange; Elena had been able to easily blend into every single class, even in the creative writing class that she scoffed at after seeing it on her schedule. Elena was almost perfect, fitting in somewhere between the slacker students and the dedicated ones, seamlessly fitting in like she’d been there the entire time.

She just seemed to fit everywhere, for that matter. She fit in with Caroline, Tyler, Matt and Stefan. Rebekah, however, was feeling like the odd one out. She seemed to be pushed to the end, sometimes hearing an abrupt eerie silence when she’d return to the table, everyone scrambling to bring up a new topic. She never questioned it, but it stung to know that Elena was fitting in so well and she couldn’t be in on it too.

Sighing Rebekah turned back to the board, glancing briefly at the time. Only forty minutes left until the class was over. She discreetly glanced at her phone; Caroline said she was heading somewhere with Tyler so Rebekah and Elena would be on their own for lunch. 

“As an easy first week assignment one of the papers, read them over and try to fill them out for five friends and then have them fill out one, and fill out your own as well. This should be an easy grade for you all,” the professors gaze swept over a group of kids in the back who weren't paying attention, “and a fun exercise to see how your group fits together and differs.” Rebekah took one of the papers and passed it to the girl on the other side of Elena who was still focused intently on her notebook while the professor went over different aspects of personalities. 

Once the lecture was over and they were reminded of their homework Rebekah wandered off in the direction of the small restaurant next door, mentally running through the menu in her head as she walked assuming Elena would be nearby, but she was quickly dragged back to her surroundings when someone brushed against her left arm. Fear seized her heart until she realized it was only Alexander.

“Alexander, I'm really not in the mood.” she held her purse tighter feeling her heart beat slowing down as the lingering fear drifted out of her blood, annoyance taking it's place rapidly.

“All I'm doing is walking with you.” he pointed out, shoving his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders. Rebekah rolled her eyes, grinding her teeth to keep her annoyance at bay.

“It's never just walking with you, Alexander.” she shifted her bag to her left arm, glancing around for Elena, but her body guard was nowhere in sight and she felt very terrified being on her own and she didn't want to think about why. 

“I'm just walking with you, making sure you're safe from-.” he cut himself short, his eyes narrowing into angry slits. A slim hand slipped into her free hand, soft thin fingers laced between her own and she was tugged gently away from Alexander and over to Elena who was grinning at her playfully.

“Hey Beks, ready for lunch?” she gave her hand a gentle squeeze, “oh sorry did I interrupt? It's Alexander, right?” she smiled at him and batted her lashes playfully

“Yeah.” he muttered stiffly.

“I'm Elena, it's nice to meet you. Anyways come on, we want to get a good table, don't we?” she gave another gentle tug on Rebekah's arm and dragged her away from Alexander. It wasn't until halfway across campus, and far away from Alexander, that Elena slipped her hand out of Rebekah's, and the girl hardly noticed except for the faint scraping of Elena's nails across the palm of her hand. 

Her hands were so cold, like Stefan and Damon's always felt, and so unlike Matt's which were always soft and warm a just a little bit sweaty. The trio had hands that she'd liken to a corpse, were they not all walking around casually every day she'd be sure they were.

“Sorry about the Alexander thing, he just gives me the creeps.” Elena explained, “and if I recall you're not too fond of him, either. That might throw him off for a few days.”

Rebekah smiled, “thanks. Maybe I should hire you as a personal Alexander repellant when this is all over.” Elena grinned at her, stepping forward and opening the restaurant door for Rebekah and followed her inside.

Rebekah went straight for her favorite table by the window, tossing her bag into the booth by the window. Elena followed in suit on the opposite side, glancing around the restaurant casually and dragging one leg up underneath her.

“I'll be right with your girls.” a waitress called in their direction.

“Okay.” they chorused, Rebekah glancing at Elena who'd sounded distracted. She found the girl staring with, what Rebekah could only describe as longing, burning in her dark eyes at a couple a table away from them sitting with their little girl who was swinging a ketchup covered french fry around and giggling madly.

In a fit of louder laughter the fry was flung backwards, landing on Elena's shoulder and sticking to it. The mother glanced at her daughter and nervously at Elena with an apology on her lips, Rebekah watched Elena closely, unsure how the generally gruff girl would react.

“It's okay.” Elena smiled, grabbing a napkin and wiping the fry from her arm, “things happen.” the woman sighed, apologized and turned back to her meal, making sure the girl stopped playing with her food.

Elena continued to look at the girl, the look on her face now clearly longing. “Do you ever want kids?” Rebekah asked casually, drawing the girls intense gaze to her, “do you want to get married?”

Elena didn't answer right away, Rebekah could see she was trying to figure out whether to lie or not, “I was married once. We had a daughter, she was about two when he died. He was in the army.” Rebekah wanted to ask where her daughter was now, and probably would have, but the waitress stepped up to their table. Maybe it was for the best.

“Good afternoon. I'm Cindy and I'll be your waitress. What can I get you to drink?” she smiled and flipped open her notepad.

“Ice water.” they chorused, Rebekah glanced sheepishly at Elena.

“Alright, are you ready to order or do you need a minute?”

Elena nodded at Rebekah, “I guess so. I'll have a patty melt with french fries and mayo.” Rebekah ordered.

Cindy scribbled that down, “and you?” she turned to Elena.

“Buffalo chicken sandwich, with blue cheese, and fries, please.” Elena rattled off, her eyes focused on the little girl who as starting to throw a tantrum over something.

“Alright, I'll be right back with your waters.” Cindy said, weaving her way through tables in the crowded restaurant.

“So why creative writing?” Elena asked, her eyes focusing back on Rebekah, leaning fully on the table and focusing on Rebekah. 

“I like telling stories, making different people and places and things. I want to write things that make people sad, and happy, and joyful and write books that change peoples lives the way books have changed mine.” and that launched the hour long conversation about various books and authors the girls liked, nearly causing them to missing Rebekah's favorite class, the pair had to sprint across campus to make it on time after they finished their lunches.

Rebekah was breathing heavily as she slumped into a seat, Elena sitting down behind her looking like she'd hardly exerted any effort even though she'd been right beside Rebekah the entire time. She opened her notebook to continue whatever it is she was writing in the previous class. 

“What language is that?” Rebekah asked, the letters weren't Latin, but instead Cyrillic and she didn't know the difference between those languages, and couldn't even begin to fathom a guess.

“It's Bulgarian. I was born there.” Elena replied. 

“It looks so....different. And pretty.”

“It does.” Elena agreed, and propped her head on her hand, her hair falling and creating a curtain between them. Rebekah's attention drifted toward the front of the room where the professor was lecturing on the importance of different character types, and Rebekah was only half paying attention, distracted by the dark haired girl beside her.

She'd been around for two weeks now and in that time they'd never had a conversation of any sort until today, and Rebekah found they had a lot in common. They were both family oriented, both enjoyed reading far more than partying, but neither minded a good party, and it left Rebekah to wonder what else they could have in common. 

Her attention was dragged from Elena to her pocket when her phone buzzed against her hip, a text from Kol inviting them to come watch his boxing match at six. Rebekah showed Elena the text, “sure why not.” was Elena's brief response. Rebekah texted Kol that they'd be there and turned her attention back to the lecture, taking half assed notes that probably wouldn't make sense later.

When class let out she dragged Elena back to their dorm to change and dragged Caroline and Tyler to the gym with them, “he practices every day, why did he invite you today?” Caroline asked.

“I don't know, but I like watching him box, its fun.” Rebekah replied, opening the gym door and stepping inside. There weren't many people inside, but Kol was in the main ring sparring with a guy in a full padded suit that made his movement very limited and made him a very good target. 

Elena followed behind the group eying Kol with a smirk on her face as he delivered a roundhouse kick to the Michelin man he was using as practice. The man stumbled back and nearly fell over, Elena chuckled as she took a spot beside Rebekah on the bleachers, close enough that their hips were touching, which did not go unnoticed by Rebekah. 

“So I guess they're having an open ring night tonight.” Rebekah motioned toward the sign on the wall, “anyone trained can box.” 

“And miss Elena should join me in the ring.” Kol teased, dropping down on the bleachers in front of them and wiping his face with a towel, “you said you were trained, didn't you?”

“I am, and I'd love to.” Elena grinned, leaning her elbow on her knee and leaning forward, resting her head on her palm, “but in these heels? That's just not gonna happen.” 

“So if I find you proper attire?” he asked, Rebekah took notice of the way he was looking up at her from under his lashes, trying to seduce the brunette. 

“How can a girl resist?” Rebekah almost lost it, because Elena batted her lashes at him and giggled, returning his bedroom eyes with fervor. Kol smirked and bounced up from the bleachers, moving quickly around the gym, coming back in a few seconds with a red head in tow. 

“Ladies, this is Kerissa.” he motions to her, “she's got some clothes Elena can borrow.” Elena stood up, glancing back at Rebekah before hopping down the two levels of bleachers and following Kerissa into the locker room, coming back out a few minutes later in a pair of shorts, tennis shoes and a tank top, her hair in a high ponytail swishing behind her head. Rebekah watched intently as Elena warmed up off to the side with Kerissa, and she couldn't seem to look away.

She was even more excited to see Kol and Elena get in the ring together, “you know Elena really shouldn't get in the ring with Kol it's totally unfair.” 

“Why cause she's a girl?” Rebekah snapped, turning on Caroline with a glare.  
“No, because she'll kick his ass.” Caroline replied, chuckling and turning to Tyler and he shook his head, “twenty bucks.” Caroline challenged. Tyler laughed and shook her hand on it, leaning back across the other rows of bleachers to wait. 

Rebekah rolled her eyes, finding her journal and settling in to write, but she couldn't manage to concentrate on anything other than Elena while she was warming up, and then following her as she went over and talked to Kol beside the ring, signing the list with him and walking over to sit beside Rebekah, once again so close their hips were touching, “your brother is really serious about this whole thing. It's ridiculous.” 

“Just...don't hurt him.” Rebekah said, “I remember what you did to those guys.”

“I wont hurt anything but his pride, I promise.” Elena winked at Rebekah before turning to watch the sparring going on in front of her, wincing when Kerissa got hit with a nasty upper cut and stumbled back, touching her nose tenderly before nodding and retaking her stance.

“That looks painful.” Rebekah grimaced.

“It's not fun.” Elena agreed, “but I mean as far as hits go that one didn't have too much power behind it, otherwise her nose could have broken.” she leaned back in a way similar to Tyler and glanced over at Rebekah who was shaking her head slowly back and forth. 

“Haven't you seen the matches before?” she asked.

“Well yeah, but Kol never gets hurt.” Rebekah replied, “I mean its different because one of you is obviously going to.”

“Aww, you care if I get hurt.” Elena teased, Rebekah's cheeked turned pink, Elena couldn't help but notice and tried to contain her giggling, playfully bumping her knee with her foot. Rebekah was still marveling at Elena's ability to change so easily, “thanks, I'll be sure not to hurt him too bad, but he'll be pissed if I hold back.” 

“That may be true, but if you hurt him...” Rebekah let the sentence hang, she really had nothing to follow up the threat, and she knew Elena knew that but it made her feel better to at least do something. Kol motioned toward Elena who grinned and hopped up as Kerissa and her boxing friend hopped out of the ring and grabbed two water bottles, sitting down to watch as Kol and Elena stepped into the ring. 

Rebekah closed her journal, leaning forward with her forearms on her knees, her eyes locked on her brother and body guard. They both moved with such a grace that they might as well have been dancing, and that's all they seemed to be doing, none of them were willing to make the first move. 

Kol smirked and Rebekah noticed he shifted his weight and aimed a fake jab at Elena's face which she effortlessly sidestepped, and landed a punch to his stomach, he stepped back a few paces and his face morphed into one of extreme concentration.

They were moving too fast for Rebekah to keep track of the swings and blows, but she did know that they were pretty evenly matched-though she suspected that Elena was holding back, even as she hit him with an uppercut to the under side of his jaw, knocking him back into the ropes. 

He moved quickly back toward the center of the ring, immediately getting a hit to her shoulder and another underneath her chin before she grabbed his third hit and drove her fist into his stomach again, taking him off of his feet. He landed a hit to her shoulder and she landed a blow to his jaw.

Kol rubbed his jaw, eying Elena for a few moments before smiling and hopping right back into the center of the ring. Things got faster, and even less easy to keep track of for Rebekah as blow after blow landed and then somehow Kol ended up on the floor, gaping up at Elena rubbing his chest.

Elena stood above him, her chest heaving up and down as she swept her hair out of her face. Kol nodded his head and the match was over, Elena held out her hand and helped him to his feet, they said something to each other and both hopped out of the ring. Elena grabbed a water bottle and tossed it to Kol before taking one for herself and sitting to talk with Kol and Kerissa down at the bottom of the bleachers and chatting. 

After two more matches Kerissa and Elena disappeared into the locker room, and after twenty minutes Elena came back out, Kerissa following a few minutes later, Rebekah spotted them and waved Elena over, “I'm really tired, we need to head home.”  
“Okay.” Elena shrugged and walked out behind the group, her eyes scanning across the street as she lingered behind the group and then quickly crossed them and caught right back up, hopping into the back seat of Tyler's truck beside Rebekah who looked very tired. 

When they made it back to campus Rebekah jumped out of the car and almost sprinted across the court yard. Elena jogged after her, grabbing her arm and pulling her to a halt, “what the hell are you doing?” she noticed Rebekah had tears rolling down her eyes.  
Rebekah shoved her phone into Elena's stomach and moved off quickly once more, Elena glanced at the screen, her eyes darkening, and rushed after her, “Rebekah when did you get this?”

“Right before you came out. Elena they followed us there.” Rebekah was crying now and she ran off as fast as she could, dropping her journal in her rush. Elena picked it up and ran after her, catching up with her as she entered the dorm room, “I could hav-.”

“No.” Elena replied, “I wouldn't have let anything happen to you, no matter what I was doing, I was still watching you. It's my job, and I wont let them take you. You're safe.”

“They followed us! They took my picture!” Rebekah started pacing, “god they were so close! But everyone there was someone I knew.” she stopped, turning to Elena with a horrified expression.

“Yes, it is likely someone who knows you.” Elena stated, her face hardening back into bodyguard mode, “I might know who it is, Rebekah, or I thought I did but he wasn't there.”

“He?” Rebekah asked, anger burning in her eyes as she turned on Elena once more, “who do you think it is?”

Elena looked away for a moment, closing her eyes and opening them again before looking at Rebekah, “Alexander.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this chapter took so long, I have had a lot going on in life. But here's a new chapter, and hopefully it'll be updated sooner. And if it seems fast it's for a reason, I promise! I hope you enjoy this chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

"What are you reading?" Elena's voice startled Rebekah, who had been staring intently at the computer screen in the library for the past hour while Elena roamed the stacks. Elena slipped into the seat beside her, resting her head on Rebekah's shoulder and peering at the screen, "vampires huh? I thought you weren't into that immortality thing."

"Got a story idea. Need to know more about them." Rebekah replied, stifling a shrug so she wouldn't jostle Elena. She didn't want to linger on her reasoning behind not wanting her body guard to pull away for too long so she focused on the conversation instead of the feeling of Elena's soft skin against her shoulder.

"Well wikipedia isn't gonna do much for you." Elena replied, "there's multiple variations of vampires, you gotta take what lore you know and just create your own, just so it doesn't fall in with the rest of that bullshit."

"What do you know about vampire bullshit?" Rebekah returned, trying to look down at Elena but just finding herself staring at the top of the brunettes head.

"I've read Twilight, and the Vampire Academy series, and all of those other shitty teen vampire novels, and I watched Buffy and Angel, I'm all up on the vampire bullshit." Elena stated, "vampire's are different in every story, but for the most part, burn in the sun, drink blood, live for ever. The whole garlic and crosses and invited in varies from story to story, so take your essentials, figure out what bullshit to add to make them your own."

"Fantastic writing advice from Elena Gilbert." Rebekah laughed.

"Feel free to thank me in your book." she laughed, "now come on, Caroline will kill me if I don't get you back to the dorm to get ready for the Stupid Cupid thing." she rolled her eyes standing up and holding her hand out for Rebekah who took it and allowed her self to be dragged off after shutting down the computer.

Back in the dorm Caroline was already busy tearing apart their wardrobes trying to find outfits that fit the color scheme-red, white, pink and black. Elena and Rebekah sat on their beds watching with as much interest as they could muster-which between the two of them was not much.

By the time Caroline was done picking out what each of them would be wearing-any input from the other girls silenced with a harsh glare- Elena and Rebekah had done their hair and makeup done and got to sit and watch Caroline somehow do what took them an hour in under ten minutes, "I want to know who she sold her soul to." Elena whispered, amazed at how quickly Caroline had removed her old makeup and reapplied her new in no time.

"Quit staring and start getting dressed ladies!" Caroline barked, grabbing her outfit and heading into the bathroom.

"I'll change out here so you can have the changing screen." Elena offered, grabbing the dress Caroline had laid out for her and going to the farthest point in the room, turning her back to the changing screen. Rebekah sighed and grabbed the jeans and top Caroline had picked out for her going around the screen and shedding her loose pants and tank top.

After shimming into the black skinny jeans she pulled on the red silky top twisting her arms to try and zip the back up, "Uh Elena? Care? I can't get the zipper all the way up on the shirt by myself." Rebekah called out.

"One sec." Elena's voice was slightly muffled and she could hear fabric ruffling before Elena's footsteps cross the room and Rebekah felt the girl behind her. Gently placing one hand delicate but cold hand between the shirt and her back Elena zipped the back of the shirt up, "I will never understand the whole zipper trend." she commented, her knuckles ghosting across Rebekah's shoulder blades, causing the girl to shiver.

"Neither will I." Rebekah turned to face Elena only to see her walking away, sitting down on the edge of her bed to slip her stockinged feet into a pair of black heeled boots, "that dress looks nice on you." Rebekah commented, sitting on her own bed to slip on her shoes.

"Thanks. I've had it for years." she glanced down at the plaid dress and rubbed a piece of fabric between her fingers, clearly lost in thought, but only for a second before she shook her head and zipped up her shoe.

"Caroline, move it or lose it!" Rebekah laughed, standing up and walking to her dresser to touch up her makeup and check her hair, watching Elena shrug on her leather jacket and brush her hair out from underneath it, her curls bouncing against the jacket lightly, "your hair makes you look like an overachiever with the pink in it." Elena glared at Rebekah playfully in the mirror before pocketing her phone and keys.

Caroline stepped out of the bathroom before she could say anything, striking a pose in the door way with an arrogant smirk, "I look hot."

Rebekah glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye, "of course, you always do." she'd picked herself out a curve tight dress with a pink bodice and a black skirt that hugged her perfectly and her blonde curls bounced around her shoulders in perfect spirals.

"We all look pretty good." Rebekah elaborated, picking up her phone and pocketing it, "but I look the best." she winked in an over done manner as she headed for the door, the other two girls following her, all three pausing when the door opened to reveal Matt, Damon, Stefan and Tyler on the other side.

"What the hell?" Caroline asked.

"Parties need slightly more protection." Elena explained, Rebekah's stomach tightened; she'd almost forgotten, though how she could forget she didn't know.

"You don't think he'd try." Caroline whispered, glancing at Rebekah briefly.

"I don't know what to think. But just to be safe." she motioned between the brothers.

"Fine." Rebekah huffed, stepping out the door and hooking her arm through Matt's storming ahead of them. Caroline grabbed Tyler and hurried off after her while Elena locked the door to their room and fell into step between the brothers, their eyes scanning every possible direction as they walked.

Rebekah wouldn't admit it but she definitely felt safer knowing more people were looking out for her this time, even if those people were the Salvatore brothers. At the very least she knew that Damon could take Alexander, if not Elena.

But she wouldn't admit it, and spent most of the evening dancing with Matt, Caroline and Tyler, noticing that Elena was actually dancing and playing beer pong with the Salvatore's though whenever she looked Elena was looking at her, too which was a comfort.

"Care!" Rebekah called, seeing her friend disappearing around the corner, "where you going?"

"Bathroom! I'll be fine!" she assured, moving out of view. She was about to protest when she spotted Damon slip down the hall after her and noticed that Elena and Stefan were still watching her, Elena nodded when Rebekah caught her eye, relaxing the blonde immensely, even more so when Caroline and Damon reappeared five minutes later.

"That line is ridiculous." Caroline scowled. Rebekah chuckled, shaking her head as Caroline searched for Tyler in the crowd, before pulling Matt over to the table where the beers were sitting in coolers. She grabbed two and motioned for him to follow her outside, sitting down on the porch swing and cracking open a beer, holding one out to Matt.

"I've actually gotta work in the morning so I think I may head out, since Elena's here." he motioned to the brunette hovering in the door way almost out of sight, "see you tomorrow, Rebekah." she gave him a small smile before he set off, glancing at Elena before he stepped off the porch and made his way across campus, disappearing in the darkness.

Elena made her way over, falling onto the porch swing beside Rebekah, taking the beer the blonde silently offered, "Got a little too much in there?" she asked, twisting the top off and tossing it into the trash can near the door. Rebekah tried the shot and failed, but said nothing.

"Yeah, needed some fresh air." Rebekah took a sip of the beer and made a face, beer was not her drink of choice, "and a new dance partner now."

Elena laughed, leaning back against the swing and pushing her foot gently against the porch to make the swing sway gently, "I forgot how pretty it was here." she sighed, "You don't get views like this in New York, though New York was still great."

"How come you left?"

"Got wanderlust, like most people. Decided to travel the world, see things explore things. I've been pretty much everywhere now, but nothing is like Mystic Falls." she sighed, "Bulgaria is pretty nice too, but going there is rough for me."

"How come?"

"That's where my husband and I lived." Elena whispered, "being their just reminds me of him, and it just hurts."

"You miss him a lot."

"I do. He was the love of my life, the one person I needed, the only person whoever made me feel truly loved." she bit her lip and stopped talking and then tipped her head back and chugged her beer, standing when she was done and tossing it in the trash can where it shattered, turning to Rebekah and holding out her hand, wigging her fingers, "come on."

Rebekah took her hand, the thought of how often they seemed to be holding hands fluttering through her mind briefly as she was guided back inside, having to press close to the other girl to stay together in the throng of people.

Dancing was something that was both invigorating and relaxing, and soon Rebekah found herself lost in the music, feeling Elena's constant and reassuring presence behind her, be it a hand on her hip or her hair whipping gently against her back. When Damon joined the duo, handing each of them a cup, Rebekah didn't care, happily dragging him closer.

Maybe Caroline's dance idea hadn't been the worst.

Rebekah felt like she was dancing on air as Elena slipped between her and Damon, pulling her away and into her side, laughing mirthfully at the pout on Damon's face before spinning her back to him, locking eyes with Rebekah, whose heart skipped a few beats before she joined in the laughter. That is, until Elena's face grew stoney and she froze up, it looked to Rebekah like she was sniffing the air like a dog before a storm.

"Gotta pee." she muttered, distractedly, quickly slipping away and abandoning Rebekah. Damon changed his grip, taking her by the elbow and steering her over to the edge of the room, eyes searching for something, Rebekah didn't have a clue what, her heart was starting to go into over drive.

And then someone screamed.

But not just someone, "Caroline." she whispered, tugging away from Damon and running in the direction of the scream. Damon caught her and dragged her into a corner while people ran in every direction some shoving her so hard she hit Damon and knocked them both into the wall behind him, "Damon that was Caroline!"

"I know, I know." he whispered, but started to drag her out of the house and off in the direction of the dorms, his eyes sweeping the crowds hastily as he kept an iron grip on her arm.

Rebekah searched for any familiar faces, desperately trying to find anyone other than Damon, and then she spotted someone in the crowds, just a glimpse, "Elena!" she yelled, but the girl kept moving, melting into the crowd and disappearing.

"Come on, lets get you back to the dorms." Damon whispered, moving quicker now. They stepped into Stefan and Tyler's dorm room, shutting the door behind them only to have it open right after, Tyler and Stefan stumbling in with an unconscious and bloodied Caroline in Tyler's arms, Elena stepping in and slamming the door behind them, locking it and leaving a red liquid on the gold metal.

Rebekah noticed the blood on the front of Elena's dress before Elena rushed up to Tyler's bed where Caroline was laying, unconscious, her neck soaked in blood from what looked like a bite. Rebekah felt her knees tremble before she fell to the ground her stomach dropping with her body, this snapped Elena's attention from the blonde on the bed and back to Rebekah.

"Who could have-no what could have done this?" Rebekah's voice trembled as she spoke the words, and it seemed like everybody was suddenly aware that Rebekah was in the room and they all shared a silent look before Elena nodded, walking over to Rebekah and gently pulling her to her feet, directing her toward the door, only pausing to grab a sweater that she hastily dragged on before stepping out behind Rebekah.

"Where are we-I want to stay with Caroline!" Rebekah tried to turn around but Elena's hands locked around her arms in an iron grip and pushed her toward their room, similar to the way Damon had handled her after the party, it angered and terrified her how strong they were.

"When I explain this to you, and if you still want to go, we can come back." Elena told her, moving with such a paranoid haste that Rebekah wondered what the hell could have happened at the party that was more horrible than Caroline's current state.

When they made it into the dorm Elena shut the door, locked the dead bolt and slid the chain in place, pressing her ear against the door for a full minute before crossing the room and closing the curtains before finally turning to Rebekah who was sitting frozen at the foot of her bed, "A vampire attacked Caroline and killed her. That same vampire likely fed Caroline their blood. When Caroline wakes up she will be in transition and the only thing she's going to want is human blood, aka yours."

Rebekah stared at Elena with a blank expression, her mind trying to wrap around it and failing, she smirked, "you guys are real assholes, trying to pretend vampires are real as some sort of sick joke?" a laugh made its way to her lips.

Without hesitation Elena had shot across the room, knocking Rebekah back onto her bed, hovering over her, fangs where her normal teeth should be and black veins crawling from around her eyes, fear seized Rebekah's heart and she felt paralyzed, staring up in horror at Elena's face.

Elena lent back a fraction, the fangs and veins retracting, "I wish it was a joke." Elena whispered, listening to the sound of Rebekah's heart racing in her chest, "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you. I'm bad at being subtle."

"Oh yeah, I totally hadn't noticed." Rebekah replied, chuckling nervously, "is Caroline going to be okay?"

"It's Caroline." Elena answered, moving off of Rebekah and over to her side of the room, tugging the stolen sweater off and pulling off her dress, putting on a pair of shorts and a loose shirt, sitting down on her bed facing Rebekah, "any other questions?"

"Stefan and Damon?"

"Yes."

"Tyler?"

"No. He's a werewolf."

"How do you know Stefan and Damon? How did you turn into a vampire? When?" Rebekah sat forward, her writers brain suddenly craving answers, anything to keep her from thinking about Caroline.

"Well I guess I should start at the beginning, which starts with a vampire named Katerina Petrova." the name rolled off her tongue like liquid poison, disgust burning in her eyes, "she started out as an innocent young girl who had a child out of wedlock at the age of 17, she was disowned after her daughter was born and sent to live in England where she was born again as Katherine Pierce. She ran into a lot of trouble, people wanting to posses her for the power of her doppleganger blood-you know what those are right?"

"Copies or doubles of the same person. Willow's vampire parallel universe." Rebekah referenced, nodding her head slowly.

"Basically, except these kind of doppelganger's run through the blood lines and only occur once every hundreds of years." Elena pauses, "she eventually ended up taking refuge with two vampires who were trying to send her to those who wanted her dead, she tried to kill herself so they force fed her blood to revive her, allowing her to kill herself again and turn into a vampire-killing the human house keeper to complete the transformation. Fast forward 500 years and I was born."

"What year?" her fingers itched to grab a pen, but she knew Elena would stop talking if she tried to.

"June 4th 1630. 17 years later I was married and had a young little girl, her name was Nadia, after her great great grandmother. A year later my husband died in war and a year after that I met Katherine. I was intrigued and a little scared-she was my exact copy, except she was a lot darker, her eyes almost hallow and soulless. Angry that I got the life she always wanted, she killed me, right there on the spot, turning me into a vampire like her. In exchange for my daughters life I was forced to leave her with my family and travel with Katherine." Elena stopped, Rebekah had no doubt she was thinking of her young daughter.

"That's awful."

"She's a real psycho." Elena agreed closing her eyes for a few moments, "I traveled with her for fifteen years, turning into a psycho, just like her. A perfect double. I left after 15 years, unable to stand myself any longer. In retaliation Katherine killed what was left of my family, except for my daughter who was given away as a young child, but I managed to out run Katherine for years."

"How?"

"I was better at hiding and after awhile I think she stopped looking." Elena answered, "but eventually I found myself in Mystic Falls, staying with the Salvatore brothers, it was the first time since Katherine killed me that I remembered what love and freedom felt like."

"So which brother?"

"Both." Elena replied, a soft smile on her face, "times were much different. I loved Stefan, he was a true gentleman but he was so much like my husband that it pained me to truly love him. Damon on the other hand was nothing like him."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, Damon was quite charming, but he was also a rebel, doing anything to piss his father off, including me. Giuseppe Salvatore never trusted me, it was only at Stefan's insistence that I was allowed to live in their house. I'd been there maybe a year when in 1864 Katherine arrived. I don't think she even knew I was there, I believe it was quite a coincidence, but regardless it took a lot for me to formulate a story that would explain her sudden appearance."

"So how'd they take it?"

"Stefan fell in love with her, and so did Damon. Katherine just had that way about her, and I found my time well occupied by some of Katherine's traveling companions, including her witch friend Emily Bennett."

"Bennett, like Bonnie Bennett?"

"Yes, exactly like Bonnie Bennett." Elena nodded, "Emily hated Katherine, but owed my doppelganger her life. She didn't hate me as much, though outside of our time in my bed she acted like she did. I left a month after Katherine's arrival, before I could really see her full affect on the Salvatore brothers, and at some point she ended up turning the both of them.

There were rumors she was killed during the founding families attack on the vampires-because Katherine was less than subtle, but somehow she escaped, the way Katherine always does. I ended up running into Stefan and Damon from time to time, and sought them out when they lost control, but I never really stuck around for too long, on the run from Katherine who was still trying to ruin my life, like she'd already ruined theirs."

"Where is she now?" Rebekah asked when she realized Elena was done talking.

"That's the problem." Elena stated, "I think she's here. And I think she turned Caroline."

"If she killed Caroline." Rebekah whispered after a ten minute pause, "then maybe it was her that I saw disappearing into the crowd when Damon was trying to get me out. I called your name but you didn't turn around so I just assumed you didn't hear me."

Elena's face grew hard, "you've got to listen to me closely now," Elena stood up and crossed the room, standing in front of Rebekah she grasped her necklace, her fingers burning as soon as they made contact with the charm, she dropped it seconds later, "never take this off under any circumstance. And drink this every day." she knelt between their beds and grabbed a box underneath it, handing it to Rebekah.

"What is it?"

"Vervain. It keeps vampires from getting into your head and controlling you, and it also burns us. If you don't see this bracelet, it's not me." she holds up her arm for good measure, "pretend you think it is, but try to get away as fast as possible. She's more dangerous than Alexander ever will be, so if you see him around her, get his attention."

"But he tried to-."

"Alexander doesn't want you dead. He's a vampire hunter-that's why those guys in the alley attacked you, they wanted to get back at him. Call him over if you see her, okay?" Rebekah nodded, watching Elena circle around the room and gather her things.

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere, we're going to stay with Caroline." she tossed Rebekah a bag, "we're going to take her to my old house, if you still wanted anything to do with us."

"Of course, she's my best friend."

Elena zipped up her bag and turned to Rebekah, "then get a move on."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the delay, I make no promises for a speedy update to follow because I'm bad at keeping those. I hope you're enjoying this story!


	6. Chapter 6

Rebekah had seen the Gilbert house many times, before Jeremy Gilbert's parents passed away she'd visited multiple times. She expected to roll up to this house again and her focus was fully on Caroline's still unconscious body laying in the back of the SUV with Tyler and Stefan as they drove, so when they suddenly made a sharp turn before Mystic Falls' city limits her head snapped up in alarm and she looked around hoping to figure out where the hell she was going.

They bumped through trees for nearly twenty minutes before pulling up outside a small vine covered house that looked older than anything in Mystic Falls. Since Elena's long story Rebekah had never bothered to wonder how the Gilbert's ended up traveling from Bulgaria to Mystic Falls to settle nearly 200 years after Elena's death, if her family had been killed. 

Pulling around the back Elena, Damon and Rebekah got out, the trio peeling down the thorn covered vines so Elena could unlock the door and get down into the basement to start up the generator. Once the lights came on they carried Caroline in and laid her on Elena's bed, leaving her with Tyler to watch over until she woke up, Damon dragging in bags of food that he and Stefan started to put away.

Out in the living room the four sat in a semi circle on the couches in front of the fire Elena had started, staring at its crackling orange flames in silence for a long time before Stefan and Damon stood up, clearing their throats, “we need to find Stefan some baby squirrels, any requests Elena?” he asks, grasping Stefan's shoulders and giving him a little brotherly shake.

“Cute red head?” Elena ventures teasingly, “I'm good.” they nod and glance at Rebekah before stepping out the door. Elena glances at Rebekah, too, before getting up and walking to the kitchen. She comes back and hands Rebekah a bottle of water before sitting down again.

“Thanks.” Rebekah mumbles.

“Of course.” she pulled her legs underneath her, turning to face Rebekah, “any more questions?”

“How'd your family get here? I mean I know you were physically here after you were turned, but your family had to settle here and stay.” Rebekah opened the bottle but didn't take a sip, focused on Elena's answer.

“My elder brothers, Gavril and Ilya, moved away two years before I got pregnant, and they had their own families so Katherine never tracked them down. Gavril had four children, three boys and a girl, and Ilya had two children, twin boys. Eventually down the line they traveled from Bulgaria over here and after a lot of traveling the Gilbert's settled in Mystic Falls and helped found the town.” 

“Wow, and your daughter?” Rebekah lifted the bottle and took a sip, replacing the cap and dropping the bottle on the table in front of her.

“My parents gave her away, they'd raised their children and were disgraced when I suddenly ran off without my daughter. She got sent to a nice home a few towns over, grew up got married had a daughter and then a son. I never learned her sons name, but she named her daughter Elena.” a smile passed across her lips quickly and vanished just as rapidly. 

“What have you been doing about food? We've been together pretty much every waking second.” Rebekah asked, her mind starting to spin at 100 miles an hour with questions and ideas and possibilities for her story and plain curiosity.

“Damon's been bringing me blood bags from his reserves at the boarding house. I'm not like Stefan, he only eats animals and doesn't kill them. He's got an addiction problem with human blood that vampires like Damon, Katherine and I don't have.” Elena rested her arm on the back of the couch and propped her head up on it.

“Which is?” Rebekah prompted, shifting to face Elena.

“We can stop. We know when to stop. Stefan loses it, he doesn't remember where he should stop and where he shouldn't. He fell in with vampires who didn't teach him that stopping is for the best. Katherine taught me control so we could spend long periods of time undetected, and I don't really know if Damon ever learned so much as he realized the best way to hide was to be subtle.” 

“So you've all...” Rebekah trailed off, Elena would know what she meant.

“Yes.” Elena stated, “when you wake up you're still human, but you're hungry, you want nothing more than blood, blood, blood. But you don't know what you want until you smell it. And then you wont stop until you have it all. And then you'll hear every heart beat within a mile and it'll take at least five other vampires to hold you back. Even now I can hear your heart racing.” 

Elena stood up, leaning over Rebekah and forcing her to press her back against the couch, leaning into her personal space and reaching forward, tracing her finger down Rebekah's neck, “I can hear your heart beating right here, I can hear the blood pumping through your veins, rushing up to your cheeks.” she leans forward, her fangs slowly descending the veins crawling across her cheeks, “and I want to taste you.”

Rebekah's heart jumped into her throat and she could see Elena's pupils dilate, she had noticed, “Elena...” she wasn't if she was scared or nervous, and she couldn't help but marvel at how terrifyingly attractive Elena was right now, and how she wasn't trying to figure out how to escape, but how to pull Elena closer.

“You have to understand, we're not safe.” her eyes flicker to Rebekah's neck and then back to her face, “we're dangerous and impulsive.” her fangs retracted, her eyes turning back to normal but she didn't move. Rebekah couldn't help taking in the features of Elena's face up close, the smoothness of her skin, the flecks in her eyes, the softness of her wet lips. 

She licked her lips impulsively, her mouth opening to speak but no words were coming out. Before another thought could cross her mind Elena closed the space between them, pausing with their lips just a breath apart for a heartbeat before pressing her lips against Rebekah's, kneeling on the couch on either side of Rebekah's hips.

Rebekah's hands came up and grabbed Elena's hips, holding her in place as she kissed her back with a sudden fervor, her heart racing in her chest and her stomach swarming with butterflies. Elena grabbed Rebekah's hands and pushed them away, breaking the kiss but not moving from her position, resting Rebekah's palms on her upper thighs, “I'm-.” she started.

“Elena!” suddenly she was off Rebekah's lap and slamming into the back room where Tyler was calling her, Rebekah following after at a slower pace, but she made it there in time to find Caroline sitting up on the bed staring wide eyed around her in complete horror.

“Hey Caroline...” Elena whispered, sitting down next to her on the bed on the opposite side of Tyler, Rebekah stood at the foot of the bed, watching worriedly, “how are you feeling?” she spoke in a slow and calm voice.

“You-please-Elena?” she didn't sound scared, but more unsure. Caroline hated being unsure., Elena nodded, “how can I tell?”

Elena held up her wrist where her bracelet dangled off her thin wrist, Caroline seemed to accept this, nodding her head slowly, “do you remember what happened?” Elena inquired.

“I was coming out of the bathroom, and you were in the hall, except I remember it wasn't you because she was wearing jeans.” she paused, “and then you-she grabbed me and dragged me into a bathroom and she pushed her wrist against my mouth and demanded I drink and threatened to kill me if I didn't so I did because I didn't want to die and then she dragged me back against her chest and whispered “game on” and sunk her teeth into my neck before snapping it.” 

She shudders in horror, but not the horror of someone just died, Caroline horror of being used as a pawn.

“So you realize that you're...” Elena trailed off.

“A vampire?” Caroline snapped bitterness tainting her words, “Of course I realize. I know that if I don't feed I'll die and I know that the only blood in the room is Rebekah and Tyler and for the love of god will someone tell me if my dress was ruined?” 

“Your dress was fine.” Elena confirmed, a hint of a smile on her lips.

Caroline sighed in relief and glanced at Rebekah, raking her fingers through her hair, “you okay Beks?”

“You just told me you're either going to turn into a vampire or die and you're asking if I'm okay?” Rebekah was dumbfounded, but then again Caroline had always marched to a different beat.

“Your heart is beating really fast and your face is red.” Caroline replied like it was the most natural thing in the world, Rebekah felt her face getting warm and shook her head, “you're okay then?” Rebekah nodded her head.

“Damon should be back with some blood for you. And once he does if you want I can teach you control. Or one of them can.” Elena cut in, dragging the focus back to Caroline and away from Rebekah.

Caroline laughed loudly, smothering it with her hand, “Damon and Stefan barely have a cup of self control between the two of them.” she was still trying to contain her giggling when the door opened and Damon strolled in, Stefan following him with a cooler.

“You went all the way home and got your cooler?” Elena asked incredulously, crossing her arms over her chest like a disapproving mother.

“You think I don't have a house out here in case you ever came back?” Damon returned, “Stefan, set it down there and keep watch far away where you can't smell the human blood, wolf boy, take Barbie out of here.”

“Don't be such a dick.” Rebekah snapped, stepping toward the door, “I want to go for a walk.”

“I'll walk with her.” Tyler offered, following Rebekah and Stefan out the door, “Stefan, you wanna go that way?” he pointed toward the direction they'd driven. Stefan nodded and walked off, his hands buried deep in his pockets, oddly quiet. 

Tyler and Rebekah walked in the opposite direction, their feet crunching in the leaves, “So..” Tyler started clearing his throat and looked down at his feet and then up at the sky, “Elena, she kiss as good as Damon and Stefan claim?”

Rebekah stopped walking, her mouth dropping open, “wh-what are you talking about?” Tyler spun around but kept walking backwards, grinning.

“I could hear your lips smacking together out there. I've got all the same senses as those vampires, hearing and...” his eyes flickered down, “smell, so good bad? Come on, even Caroline's been dying to know, they talk about her like she's a goddess.”

Rebekah tried to ignore what he was trying to imply about smell, threw her hands up and marched past him, “its none of your business.” Tyler chuckled and jogged behind her until he caught up, falling into step beside her, “did Caroline?”

“No. I don't think she'd care, though.” Tyler ventured.

“Not why I was worried, she was dead and I could seem kind of insulting if I was making out with some chick while she was potentially dying.” Rebekah sighed, “why would Katherine kill her?”

“Because of the long standing feud between them, it was a warning shot.” Tyler ran his fingers through his hair, “last time she was here-do you remember Sarah?”

“The girl who died at your house party?” Rebekah asked. Tyler cringed but nodded, “Katherine killed her?”

“No.” Tyler frowned, “she had someone enrage me and I was trying not to fight with him and I stormed down the stairs, tripped and knocked Sarah down, when she hit the last step and snapped her neck it triggered my curse. She wanted to let the Salvatore brothers know she was in town, as you know they up and left right after her death, drawing Katherine away for awhile. They were scared she might go after you.”

“So why'd she kill Caroline?”

“To send a message to the Salvatore's and Elena, a warning that if they don't play along something worse is going to happen.” Tyler replied.

“Worse than killing Caroline?” Rebekah spluttered.

“Caroline got turned, but she's not dead. And she's not someone all three care about as more than a friend.” Tyler gave her a meaningful look, one Rebekah didn't enjoy. 

Rebekah stopped in her tracks. “You mean me?” Tyler stopped beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder without saying a word, “I wanna go back to the house now.” she declared.

“Okay, come on.” Tyler put his arm across her shoulder and they walked back in silence. Everyone was sitting in the living room when they got back, Stefan having walked in a few minutes before them, “so how you feeling, Care?” Tyler asked, sitting down across from her.

“Fine.” she shrugged, “I'm handling it.” she reached forward and snatched a bag of chips off the table, opening it and rapidly eating half of the bag before slowing down to one chip every few minutes.

“Handling.” Damon rolls his eyes, “I guess you're doing better than some people in this room.”

“Don't act like I'm the only impulsive one, Damon.” Stefan defends, glaring at his brother.

“Fair enough.” Damon shrugs, picking up a glass of scotch from the table and taking a gulp, “seriously blondie, the alcohol helps.” he shakes the glass in her direction.

She turned her nose up at the drink, “So do these chips.” Caroline took a pointed bite out of a chip and turned her attention to Rebekah and Elena, “so what are we gonna do?”

“No 'we'.” Elena cut in, “after this weekend you will be going back to Whitmore.”

“What do you mean 'you'?” Rebekah's head whips around to face her body guard, “You can't leave me alone.”

“Alexander is the least of your problems right now. Katherine needs to be stopped, and if that means I have to leave to get her to follow then you'll deal with it. Damon can take care of Alexander.” Rebekah glared at Elena, silently fuming, then she grabbed her bag and stormed off into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it. 

She realized that throwing the tantrum was not only childish but would probably raise a billion questions from everyone, except Tyler, but she couldn't do anything else. She was just so frustrated by Elena's on and off switch, how she could go from friendly to detached and making out with her to acting like it never happened, and now she was just leaving?

And why did Rebekah care so much? She couldn't figure out what the hell about Elena Gilbert was confusing her. She didn't know where to start processing all of her thoughts and feelings, and eventually she found herself curling up in the surprisingly clean tub, finding her journal and starting to write, forgetting about the chaos her life was becoming outside of the page.

Until she found her thoughts drifting back to the softness of Elena's lips, the warmth of her mouth, the way her thin fingers tangled in her hair and her nails scraped across her scalp. Her stomach fluttered at the thought, her skin tingled and she couldn't help but run her fingers over her lips, and how her newest character was starting to become the brunette vampire.

“Ugh. Damn it.” she threw her notebook across the bathroom and scraped her fingers through her hair.

“Okay, go for a walk.” she could hear Elena's voice muffled by the door. She dragged the shower curtain over to block her view from the door. A few minutes later she heard the door rattling and after a few more seconds it unlocked and the door opened and closed.

“You are really taking this tantrum to the next level.” Elena commented, pushing aside the curtain. Rebekah scowled at her but it did nothing to stop the brunette from hopping into the tub, folding up so her knees were pressed against Rebekah's, “its really for the best.”

“For the best? What's to say she'll leave? With all three of you here she got Caroline, if you leave what's to say she wont come after me instead of following you.” 

“So what do you want to do, come with me?” Elena asked, “I can't have her destroying Mystic Falls again.”

“Why not?”

“Because she nearly killed everyone in Mystic Falls-.”

“No, not that.” Rebekah interrupted, “why not take me with you?”

“Because you belong here with the Salvatore brothers, your brothers, and Caroline.” Elena's eyes hardened and she watched Elena change again, morphing into body guard mode again, “so if you don't feel safe with them, go stay with your family again.” Elena pushed herself out of the tub and turned to look back at Rebekah before shaking her head and walking out.

“Why'd you kiss me?” Rebekah asked, watching the way Elena's body froze up.

“Because I could.”

“But why?”

Elena turned around and looked over at her with a cold stare, “because it seemed like the best way to get a rise out of you.” and then she marched out again. Rebekah scrambled out of the tub, chasing after Elena, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to a halt, realizing that Elena was allowing her to manhandle her.

“That's bullshit.” Rebekah snapped, tightening her grip on Elena's wrist and pulling her closer, kissing her roughly, Elena melting into the kiss for a second before Rebekah pulled away, “absolute bullshit.” she dropped Elena's wrist, turned around to grab her book and marched into the living room with an arrogant smirk on her face. 

Elena scowled at the back of the blondes head watching her sit down on the couch with her notebook and continue her writing. Rebekah spent the next hour writing, and she was curled up asleep on the couch when the others returned, all of them falling silent upon entering, even though Rebekah was now awake.

“Jeez Elena, you couldn't even carry her to a bed?” Caroline chided.

“If she was tired she could have just as easily walked to a bed. I'm her body guard, not her girlfriend.”

“Could have fooled the rest of us.” Damon retorted. It took all of Rebekah's self control not to give herself away, though she had a sneaking suspicion that at least Elena knew she was awake, if not everyone else, but she decided not to move, “just carry her ass to the bed.”

“Fine.” Elena snapped, Rebekah heard feet shuffling and then Elena's slim arms slid under her body and lifted her effortlessly from the couch. She heard her pen and notebook slide off the couch and hit the floor and had to force herself not to reach for it. She carried her through the room and kicked the door shut loudly, forcing Rebekah to open her eyes and glare at her body guard.

“Its not like you were actually sleeping.” Elena defended, gently tossing the blonde onto the bed. Rebekah caught her self and dragged her legs in front of her, crossing them tightly, “look, acting like a child wont make me stay.”

“And you leaving isn't likely to make her leave.” Rebekah shot back, “please don't go.” 

“Damon and Stefan can take care of you.” Elena argued, crossing her arms over her chest, “we've known each other for barely a few months.”

“I don't care.” Rebekah argued, “Don't leave. You can't spend your whole life letting Katherine win.”

“I can't spend my whole life having her kill all my friends.” Elena growled back. 

“She's already killed one, and as long as you play along she'll keep killing them.” Rebekah growled back, “Don't leave me here, I don't think they can keep me alive if she doesn't follow you.” 

“What makes you think she'll go after you?”

“Please, even Damon knows you feel something for me, just because you're trying to pretend you don't doesn't mean the rest of us haven't noticed.” Rebekah crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.

“The only thing I feel for you is an overwhelming desire to shut your mouth.”

“Then do it.” Rebekah challenged, feeling the tension rise in the room instantly. In a blink she was shoved down on the bed, Elena pressing her into the mattress as she kissed the blonde roughly. Rebekah dug her nails into the brunettes scalp, wrapping her legs through Elena's, causing the vampire to lose her balance before Rebekah shoved her and flipped their position, breaking the kiss, “You're a really shitty liar.” 

“Fuck you.” Elena growled.

“You wish.” Rebekah breathed. Elena's eyes darkened ever so slightly, and she grabbed the back of Rebekah's thighs, sitting up and knocking her onto her back, settling between her legs.

“Don't test me, little human.” she warned, shifting her knee slightly into Rebekah who gasped, her eyes widening as Elena smirked down at her, “I will always win.”

“Not if you run away.” Rebekah breathed. Elena scowled at her, giving Rebekah a chance to sit up and knock the vampire back, “you can try to fool yourself all you want Elena, but you feel something for me-it doesn't matter what it is, and everyone knows it, including Katherine. You can't leave me to them both.” her voice cracked at the end of her sentence and she scrambled to get off of the bed, “You'll be leaving me to die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait on the update. I've written and rewritten this chapter a few times. I hope you like it.


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